22 Facts About Jeremy Hardy

Jeremy Hardy is best known for his appearances on radio panel shows such as the News Quiz and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

Jeremy Hardy attended Farnham College and studied modern history and politics at the University of Southampton.

Jeremy Hardy subsequently failed to obtain a place on a journalism course, and considered becoming an actor or poet.

Jeremy Hardy started scriptwriting before turning to stand-up comedy in London in the early 1980s, funded in part by the Enterprise Allowance Scheme.

Jeremy Hardy won the Perrier Comedy Award in 1988 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Jeremy Hardy went on to feature in various comedy shows including Blackadder Goes Forth, and presented a television documentary about the political background to the English Civil War as well as an edition of Top of the Pops in 1996.

Hardy worked extensively on BBC Radio 4, particularly on The News Quiz, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and his long-running series of monologues Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation.

Jeremy Hardy appeared in the Radio 4 sitcom Linda Smith's A Brief History of Timewasting, and he appeared as a panellist on the first and second series of QI.

Jeremy Hardy wrote a regular column for The Guardian until 2001.

Jeremy Hardy then wrote a column in the London Evening Standards magazine.

An anthology of Hardy's writing, Jeremy Hardy Speaks Volumes, was published in February 2020.

Jeremy Hardy was a committed socialist, and a supporter of the Labour Party.

Jeremy Hardy performed at Labour Party rallies and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn considered him a "dear, lifelong friend".

Jeremy Hardy strongly supported Corbyn in the leadership election of 2015.

Jeremy Hardy was an outspoken opponent of the Trident programme.

Jeremy Hardy supported Irish nationalist Roisin McAliskey, the then-pregnant daughter of Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, when the former was accused of involvement in an IRA mortar attack in Germany, and put up part of the bail money to free her.

Jeremy Hardy supported the campaign to free Danny McNamee, whose conviction for involvement in the Provisional Irish Republican Army's Hyde Park bombing on 20 July 1982 was quashed in 1999, after several years of prison.

In 1986 Jeremy Hardy married the actress and comedian Kit Hollerbach and in 1990 they adopted a daughter.

Jeremy Hardy later married the photographer and filmmaker Katie Barlow.

Jeremy Hardy was a close friend of the comedian Linda Smith; when she died of ovarian cancer on 27 February 2006 he wrote about her in many media outlets and wrote her obituary in The Guardian.

Jeremy Hardy died at St Christopher's Hospice in Sydenham, London of cancer on 1 February 2019, at the age of 57.

The archive is composed of audio-visual material from Jeremy Hardy's career, including recordings of live performances.